“Voice” Christmas Album Showdown: Blake Shelton vs. Cee Lo

Those Voice coaches are like the ’92 Dream Team, aren’t they? Tell ‘em that it’s just a scrimmage, a friendly volley, and they still want to bust each others’ asses as much as possible. It appears that both Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton, one-half of the coaching panel on NBC’s hit show, will be releasing Yuletide albums this year. Blake’s Christmas release will be “family friendly” and feature duets with his mother and that new Mr. Noel, Michael Buble, while Cee Lo’s will be more of a “quirky, fresh” take and will feature his take on the super-underappreciated “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

Unsurprisingly, the shit-talking has already commenced. “Santa loves me a hell of a lot more than he loves Cee Lo,” boasts Shelton, predicting his album will be the better-seller. “Actually, Cee Lo has a guy on his team that looks a hell of a lot like Santa this year, now that you mention it. I may be totally out of place saying all that.” Actually, taking St. Nick’s name in vain is never a good idea regardless, so watch your invocations there, Blake.

In fact, isn’t it a little early to be thinking about Christmas in the first place, guys? C’mon—it’s still 90-something degrees outside, the airwaves are still mercifully free of Back-to-School ads, we haven’t even hit Labor Day…let’s not start scouting trees and ear-marking gift ideas just yet. Doesn’t someone have a Halloween song to work on or something first?